MINISTER CREECY MEETS WITH WILDLIFE WELFARE AND ADVOCY GROUPS

17th June 2021

Minister Creecy met with many wildlife conservation and animal welfare groups today to discuss the recommendations of the High-Level Panel with them.

The Minister invited us to deliver our interpretations and put forward our opinions and questions:

RHINOS IN AFRICA
Member of WILDLIFE ANIMAL PROTECTION FORUM
South Africa

Thank you Minister Creecy for organising this platform and giving us the opportunity to converse with you and the Members of the Panel and DFFE.

I reiterate was our colleagues Colin Bell and Taylor Tench have said before me. The international trade in rhino horn is banned and it is unlikely that it will ever be unbanned especially in light of the fact that 70 percent of the largest population of rhino in the world have been lost in the KNP.

The question that I would like to ask today is, when will the rhino horn that has been seized, confiscated and removed during dehorning processes be destroyed?

The high levels of crime and corruption in South Africa, combined with the high costs of security, and danger imposed to the lives of security staff, are some of the obvious negative factors associated with the management of an ageing stockpile. Stockpiles which are only of interest to the international illegal trade syndicates.

High-profile stockpile destruction events have been held in 21 countries including Vietnam. The destruction of stockpiles in South Africa will fulfil our international obligation to protect the diminishing rhinos species

Over the past year, there have been four major rhino horn seizures occurred whilst traders attempted to export rhino horn from South Africa. These large scale interceptions and the famous seizure in 2019 with apparent connections to a rhino breeder, illustrate the fact it is impossible to regulate a legal trade in South Africa.

Would the Minister consider measures such as permanent inter-provincial rotating road blocks in the rhino rich areas as a method of discouraging poaching but also as a means to curb other criminal activity? These road blocks were very successful during the COVID_19 hard lockdown and could create job opportunities.

International investment into the true preservation of this species, which would create employment could be motivated if South Africa exchanged its pro-utilisation strategies.

ENDS